HC Deb 27 January 2003 vol 398 cc650-1W
Mr. Denis Murphy

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many CSA cases were referred to the Independent Case Examiner in the last year; what the average time taken to determine each case; what and how many complaints were upheld. [88155]

Malcolm Wicks

The information is in the table.

Further information is available in the Independent Case Examiner's Annual Report for 2001–02, a copy of which is available in the Library.

April 2001–March 2002
Complaints Number
Complaints received 1,498
Accepted for examination 772
Resolved 424
Areas of complaint (per cent.)
Delay 17.1
Error 7.0
Enforcement 4.6
Communication 23.6
Failure to take action 29.1
Staff bias/attitude 3.9
Compensation 6.8
Other 8.0
Average clearance time (weeks) 32.28
Findings
Fully upheld 46
Partially upheld 141
Not upheld 26

Notes:

1. Complaints are only classified as fully, partially or not upheld if they cannot be resolved through conciliation between the client and the Child Support Agency.

2. It may be of interest for you to know that we are advised by the Agency that at the end of November 2002, the Agency's live and assessed caseload was 1,088,920.

3. Figures are in thousands and rounded to the nearest hundred.

Mr. Webb

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if it is his intention to transfer the existing Child Support Agency caseload onto the new scheme on a single common date. [91296]

Malcolm Wicks

Current plans envisage that existing cases will be converted to the new scheme on a common date. Where it emerges that a new application for child support maintenance is linked to an existing case, for example, because the non-resident parent is the same person in both cases, then the existing case will be transferred to the new scheme early.

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